Improvised paintball helps police ID car driven by suspected mail thief; Blue Island man arrested

WAUKESHA, Wis. -- The owner of a Waukesha landscaping business helped lead to the arrest of a Blue Island man accused of mail theft last weekend by throwing a homemade paintball onto the man's white Jeep.

The top of Jake's Landscape Services roof is a perfect vantage point for the mailbox down below. It's a mailbox that owner Jake Klein said had been targeted by mail thieves before.

Klein told WISN he waited on that roof Saturday night until he saw a car that he recognized from previous thefts and chucked a homemade paintball down onto a white Jeep.

According to the criminal complaint, Waukesha police were already investigating the stolen mail when they say they spotted the Jeep splattered with paint and tried to pull the driver over.

Dash camera video shows the Jeep speeding off from the attempted traffic stop, leading officers on a pursuit extending more than 8 miles and reaching speeds of 123 mph.

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Officers eventually used a pit maneuver to end the chase. The dash camera video shows the side of the Jeep, splattered and smeared with the pink paint.

Police arrested 28-year-old Michael White from Blue Island.

According to the criminal complaint, officers found several pieces of mail in the car, including four envelopes addressed to Jake's Landscape Services and four envelopes addressed to the nearby Jones Logistics.

White faces one felony count of fleeing and eluding an officer, causing damage to property and one misdemeanor count of mail theft.